DECORATIONS IN A RUINED CEMETARY by...

DECORATIONS IN A RUINED CEMETARY by John Gregory Brown (Avon: $10; 244 pp.) When the bridge over Lake Pontchartrain collapses, Meredith Eagan, the adolescent narrator of this highly praised first novel, realizes the life she has known is also collapsing. Outwardly, the Eagans are a pleasant, socially committed New Orleans family. But as their shabby-genteel facade crumbles, Meredith discovers the many skeletons in the family closet, including an interracial marriage. Writing with great sensitivity, Brown traces Meredith’s emotional growth as she watches her relatives struggle to balance the conflicting demands of desire and propriety: “Maybe the greatest shame of the separation between the different races in this world, between white and black, is that we’re left blind and groping as a result, unable to sort out the qualities of character that we use to make our judgments about those we meet.”